Thread: Ugh...I can't relax.

I'm ill with a cold right now and it only made my dream recall better and hypnagogic imagery observation didn't get any more complicated so I doubt that could be a problem.

However, hypnagogia doesn't occur right away. What I do is let myself relax and go about fall asleep as I do usually with thoughts running through my head and such but then, once I'm sufficiently relaxed (often after a hypnic jerk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk)) I pay some attention to observing hypnagogic imagery on purpose.

The two aspects to note here are:

1) Hypnagogia goes hand in hand with the thoughts that one has in one's head upon falling asleep. Hypnagogia is in fact your thoughts going independant of your own will.

2) Observing hypnagogia should be done as passively as possible. Too much concentration easily breaks it or worse, doesn't allow for sleep onset.

Good luck on the WILD practice, fighting with hypnagogic imagery and such is a great way to train for it.

Ummm... okay, just this short post from you, merlock, is an incredible help.

Originally posted by Merlock
However, hypnagogia doesn't occur right away. What I do is let myself relax and go about fall asleep as I do usually with thoughts running through my head and such but then, once I'm sufficiently relaxed (often after a hypnic jerk (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk)) I pay some attention to observing hypnagogic imagery on purpose.

Cool, thanks! I get these all the time, and it;s good to know what they are, and that they're a sign I'm sufficiently relaxed. Thanks.

1) Hypnagogia goes hand in hand with the thoughts that one has in one's head upon falling asleep. Hypnagogia is in fact your thoughts going independant of your own will.[/b]

This is of HUGE help. See, up until now, I wasn't exactly aware how my mind's wanderings were exactly tied in with hypnogogic imagery. Some times, I've got things that are half thoughts, half dream-scenes, but since they're more my mind wandering and more thought-based than visual, I've sorta assumed they're not hypnogogic imagery, despite Gwen telling me otherwise. But this one sentanc,e clears a LOT of things up. Thanks.

I feel I'm really, really close to my first WILD, and my first LD now, as I've got to the stage where I see (or rather, think or mentally visualise) entire dream-scenes independant of my will. The mistake I've been making, is to "pull" myself into the imagery prematurely, rather than just let it all shift and change and be drawn ito it passively... Hmmm...

Again, thanks. This is of INCREDIBLE help, and reinforces what Gwen's been telling me.